Lac du Flambeau - The Lac du Flambeau tribe wants drugs OFF their reservation. Drug abuse is not a new issue for the Lac du Flambeau tribe, or elsewhere in the Northwoods, but the tribe is cracking down... Recently they declared a State of Emergency in regard to illegal drugs. In particular they're seeing more synthetic marijuana, "bath salts", and heroin, and they want them gone. "No matter what it does, or how they do it, it's illegal on our reservation," said Tribal Chairman Tom Maulson, "We're working with law enforcement, county enforcement, we're working with the town of Lac du Flambeau, we're working with our family resource people, our doctors, our pharmacists, the whole nine yards."
The tribal council is also concerned about prescription drug abuse. The emergency declaration means the tribe is taking a stronger stance against drugs. "In order to get Indian housing, you're going to have to go through a drug testing process... The drug movers and sellers, there's talk about banishing these people from our reservation in its entirety," said Maulson."We just need to play catch up, in order to play catch up and get the young people on the right path, we've got to find out a way to get rid of this stuff." Last weekend the tribe held a meeting on drug abuse. Next month they'll invite the public and experts back to come up with a plan of attack.